De alchemie van het verlangen Reviews

Shanmugam2018-12-14 02:29

Garbage of Higher Order!Sexual extravagance can be employed as a shocking factor, especially in transgressive fictions, case in point Charles Bukowski. Just a shocking phenomenon, you can’t expect to glue your readers only with that. There is so much wetness. You might skid on it and damage your cerebellum even before crossing 50 pages, if you are not very careful. If you don’t get what that wetness is, you aren’t perverse enough. At the 100th page, you can’t wait to get through the motion (pun intended).After about 120 pages, a back story starts in 1980s. Tarun J Tejpal must have thought, “It is not a soft porn, this should represent whole India, North India at the least. Let me throw in Punjab insurgency!” So, we get bloods, guts and all gory things. Of course, more wetness! To Mr. Tejpal, chimneys resemble phallus, rhino horn resembles phallus and anything which stands up resembles only one thing. Seriously?! D:<Another backstory. So this time ’Partition of India’ it is! Not much chance for wetness with characters involved. So what do we get from this bold writer. A hindu woman crosses border with her money stuffed inside vagina.Yet another backstory. More back stories for characters in that back story. After 350 pages, the book actually picks up pace and reads like a decent fiction. Not just mere wetness, you get flooded at this point. Onanism, Sodomism, Mughal Harem, Botanical Tour and Birdwatch thrown in between. What do we get then. Sushi with a gulp of Sake. Yes, Mr.Holmes uncovers a mystery in 'Rashomon' style.Without a doubt, it is a daring, bold, beautiful, intense, sensual and hard hitting fiction. Where is the catch then. Everything is a little bit too much and you end up with a verbal diarrhea.

Minakshi2018-12-18 23:17

Soft porn.

Jennifer2018-12-03 01:26

This is a very well written book with a steady subject at hand. My main issue is that it is over 500 pages long, of which 200+ pages could've been cut to get us to the point. This book is split up into five sections: Karma, Sathya, Kama, etc. (translated as action, love, money, desire, etc.)We start with our nameless narrator and his wife, Fizz, at a crux in their marriage after fifteen years. For some reason he just doesn't desire her body anymore as he has constantly for the duration of their relationship. (The reason is not yet fully explained, but is touched upon in the back cover copy.) We end the first section with his wife leaving him. We begin the next section with their relationship in its better moments, his struggling life as a writer, their struggling for money as he finds the great novel within him, Indian history. Then, we're on to our narrator's family history, more of their relationship, odd-jobs they work to keep themselves afloat, more random stories, etc., etc. In the 'Money' section we learn he has inherited money from an aunt who disproved of his marrying a Muslim and so they spend recklessly and end up buying a home in Chandigarh. On to the next section where the reader FINALLY learns as to what caused the narrator to draw away from his wife. He has found more than sixty notebooks from an American woman that had inhabited the home and whose soul and (perhaps curse) inflicts him sexually then through abuse in his dreams causing him to be completely spent by the time he awakes to his beautiful Fizz. The next portion is her story as he's been able to decipher it through her journals (and here we have even more SEX, written tastefully but clearly) until we move on to the final section where our narrator realizes he is nothing without Fizz though he has sat for over two years letting these journals consume him. His last line is a reversal of the first line in the book realizing that real intimacy is at it's best when love is involved.Like I said, a VERY sexual book. I'd say 75% has a reference, details, or speaks to intense fornication between the main characters or others, in particular through the American woman's journal when she was in France and her remaining time in India with her lover. Tejpal tips to India's history and background in sections that aren't too daunting to read about, but they do tend to shift focus from the main narrative causing one to want to skip. I'd suggest reading nonetheless as I found myself enthralled by certain chapters, sections, but again think this could've been condensed to make the story flow and for us not to have to wallow with the protagonist.

Rajtilak Bhattacharjee2018-12-11 20:37

Do you remember Tarun Tejpal? The Editor-in-Chief of the revolutionary newspaper Tehelka? Very recently he has published a novel. The name of the book is The Alchemy of Desire. Last week I bought it from The Starmark on Lord Sinha Road. I would not mind saying that it is a nice fiction inspite of the fact that I have not finished even half of it yet. He sets the mood with the powerful starting line which says Love is not the greatest glue between two people. Sex is. How true! Being a person who loves to call himself impulsive, I would still say that emotional bondings attached with physical attraction are much more stronger compared to the platonic love of old Hindi flicks. And I can say that from my personal experience of being a person who have been in and out of love quite a number of times.The story revolves around an impecunious young couple from a small town in India who are madly in love with eachother, move to the big city. The man works hard on a novel while caring only about his endless desire for his beautiful wife. In time they leave the city and moves to an old house in the Himalayas. While renovating their new home the husband discovers a chest full of diaries maintained by the previous owner of the house. In those diaries he slowly uncovers a dark secret, a forbidden secret.It a nice buy and is worth every penny And once you start reading it, it's pretty difficult to put it down. It is published by Picador India and the cover price is Rs325.

Abhilasha2018-12-03 22:23

Love is not the strongest glue between two people, Sex is... that's the hard hitting opening line of the book. This is the first book written by Tarun Tejpal,and what an amazing piece of work he has come up with. New readers might find it hard to digest but I have found it to be a truly great art of work. He has written with style and flare of the likes of Salman Rushdie and Naipaul.Its just not about the protagonist's unsatiable desire for his wife but also how that desire gets him through the nuances of life. The title of the book is so apt that its unbeatable. The writer so beautifully depicts the ageless desire to be so fulfilling that it almost fills every crevice of your life. The language and expressions are those used for the highlest level of love, almost devotion.I would suggest it to be a must read !!!

Sameer Rahman2018-11-26 20:35

I loved this book. From the start to the finish. From the city to the hill station to the diaries to the sex to an attempt to move on. Brilliantly written, loved the language. Worth reading for sure.

Sumana2018-12-12 00:21

One of those time-pass books. The man has a hang up about sex. Life for him seems to revolve around it. I think he should stick to Tehelka.

Shikhar2018-12-03 02:33

Reviewed in: August 2010The book was good. But i waxed too eloquent! Also, Slowly, sensually, The Alchemy Of Desire, hypnotizes and serenades the reader into an aesthetic adventure into the realms of the carnal, caressing the erogenous zones of the mind while exploring the crests n troughs of the body. The wily alchemist, Tarun J. Tejpal, quietly brews his potion, a heady concoction of passion and ambition, and slips it past the reader’s throat, taking him, body and soul, to the giddying heights of the Himalayas, up the meandering ribbons of concrete cutting across the green and the brown. Every time the body of the protagonist soars in desire, the reader is transfixed, his body in limbo, his mind on wings, climbing the highest peaks, and falling over, time and again.Like an audacious adventurer, Tarun Tejpal delves into the depth of the human spirit, and anatomy, to fathom the nature of human desire, its elements, its alchemy. Just like the ancient practitioners of alchemy, he strives for an eternal cure all -a panacea- for the cravings of the human body and the soul. Speaking through the central protagonist, writing in first person, he deconstructs desire, and discovers that it seeks the fulfillment of both mind and body- the elusive elixir that could turn metal into gold.Tarun weaves an enrapturing yarn around a young couple, gloriously in love. They are the “First Things”. The naked primordials, who know nothing else but love and desire. The central character, a teller of stories, espoused by a passionate listener, his wife, Fizz, fuelling the husband’s creative and carnal instincts. His desire to be a successful writer is only matched by his desire for her. Tarun efficiently captures the spirit and the restlessness of his era, while at the same time, his unnamed protagonist repeatedly fails in his grandiose attempts to capture the same in a novel. The desire of the protagonist is an entity in itself, a living, breathing multi-facetedorganism. The reader knows the protagonist through the sinuosity of his desire only. Itguides and shapes his life, determining its contours, and being determined by it. Itforms the background score of his life, a diminuendo of submission at one time, adominant falsetto of passion at the other. An idyllic lilting hum, or drowning it, avicious fortissimo that threatens to obliterate everything in its ascent. When writing,he’s an enigma for his wife. When words fail him, he reaches for her, drowning in herhis incompetence and failure. The nakedness of their love takes them to the virginterrain of the Himalayas, where they find an abode to embody their love and passion-for each other and the written word.It takes another creature of desire, from an altogether different era to bring his desire to its right denouement. As he stumbles upon the diaries of an American adventuress,the organism of his desire takes a violent turn, breaking free of its shackles. Pursuingthe treacherous trail of his enigmatic fantasy, his desire for a vulnerable Fizz starts to ebb. The vicious fortissimo. Bewildered, clueless, searing with hurt and pain that only a lover can inflict- her misery is palpable. As her world hits a nadir of despair, an air of melancholy envelopes the reader too, demonstrating the writer’s hold over the reader. But she knew her role. Every time the mellifluous jangle of Brother-the typewriter-announced a new inspiration, she receded into the shadows, drowning herself in its music, only to surface to give him his rewards, whenever his regimen allowed, or to be his solace, whenever the music faded. This time his musings would last years, the pain would be unbearable- there will be no music for long- so she went away, only to resurface when he had found the determining inspiration of his life. This time the music would not fade away, this time, the regimen would last till the final roll of parchment has been inked!As you move close to the ending, it dangerously hints at an almost Bollywood-ish kitschy finale, but as it smartly avoids that, realization dawns upon the reader that it was never a prospect. The lack of drama can be dissatisfying for some but it is what made me exult and clinched the novel for me. One can't help but wonder if the writer has made Fizz's character too weak and the husband too nonchalant, but as you retrospect, you realize its not only an ode to their love but a perfect and befitting closure. Instead of relegating her to just an object of his desire, it lifts her character and showcases its inherent sinew, her understanding of her husband and the larger scheme of things, giving her the identity she deserved.The setting is the heart of India in the last quarter of twentieth century- a restless era, mirroring the restlessness of the characters- shifting between Delhi and the lower Himalayas, the latter representing the elusive station that the characters seek in their lives. Tarun Tejpal makes full use of the erudite journalist in him. Yes, there are times when the journalist threatens to overpower the writer, but mostly, he deftly intersperses the narrative with his views on the goings-on of the time. Be it colonial India or the uncertain eighties and nineties, he captures the ethos adroitly. The description of the local terrain is breathtaking and brilliant in its accuracy, capturing the minutest details, using the flora and fauna as props to support the narrative.Tarun's words strike an instant chord with every reader, whether its the desire to find your apt station in life, or the naked desire for the love of your life; and doubly so if you are a burgeoning writer. The portrait of a writer is constructed with the sensitivity of a sculptor- capturing the frustrations and the angst. Equally sensitive is the handling of women’s sexuality. He starts with the eternal love versus sex conundrum, but knows they are on the same side. The narrative- lucid and imaginative, prose in appearance, poetic in effect- is one of the strongest points of the novel. It flourishes when the narrator explores his relationship with Fizz, but does get a little tedious in the sub-story charting the American’s life. The boldness may take you by surprise initially but the aesthetics are topnotch, lifting it way above the vulgar or the voyeuristic. Nabokovian in nature, it comes straight from the firebrand editor of Tehelka, a national weekly paper in India that rocked Indian politics a few years back. It distinguishes him from the clique of Indian writers spawned by the success of Chetan Bhagat and puts him straight into the league of Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and V.S. Naipaul. To sum it up, a highly satisfying and engaging debut novel.Post the Tarun Tejpal fiasco, the site has taken my review downhttp://www.chillibreeze.com/bookrevie...

Nishant Bhagat2018-11-22 18:19

This is surely one of the most difficult reviews I have had to write in the recent past. I honestly did not know what to make of this book. It has been written well but I am not happy with the structure nor the size of the book. The plot does not move till you are through with 50% of the book. Till then the author is busy trying to share his personal sexual experiences / fantasies (which he is surely well accomplished in). But this is surely not my cup of tea.The book ends in a whimper and you wonder why the author spent 515 pages to tell us that love is more important than sex! Unless you are a student of literature I would recommend you to skip this one. His other book is better

Nathalie2018-11-24 18:19

The reason I chose this novel to read, apart from its captivating title, is that one of my Goodreads friends has read it also.For her it was a while ago, but when my eye finally fell upon this book while visiting the local library and couldn't do anything but pick it up.Alas, choosing this book and bringing it home with me, didn't have the effect I wished.Choices are everywhere, and what to read next is sometimes the most difficult.So, Alchemy of Desire, it had to be patient.When I finally picked it up, it was so mesmerizing from the start, I almost didn't want to believe it.Then, and I'm not going to call it bad luck, because the book itself is a gem of another nature, a colleague had given me Congo to read and I put Alchemy aside for a while.Almost due in the library I began again and was lost immediately.The Alchemy of Desire is a wonderful, prozaic and emotional book.It's rarely that I come across a novel where nothing really happens but the main theme is how someone is feeling. May it be that those kind of novels are amongst my favourites.And Alchemy of Desire is ranked among them with certainty.It's filled with wisdom that will make you brain sing with empathy and sorrow. It's filled with pages and pages of spinetingling acts while never becoming rancid or cheap.The very first paragraph..“Love is not the greatest glue between two people. Sex is.” ..striked me where I was most vulnerable.The first part: Love was harsh, beautiful and most of the times too close for comfort. Amongst lines like “I was still madly in love with her when I left her but the desire had died, and not all the years of sharing and caring and discovering and journeying could keep me from fleeing.” I felt like crying, cheering and was confused by what I read."The definition of love. Passion and harmony in one person."Our life is all about desire. Desire for love, money, remembrance. Or desire for itself. Having someone to share you life, body and dreams with.Tejpal has written a philosophic book of how love and desire can be experienced in the new world filled with so many distractions.How one desire can be the death of another, all painted against the changing world of a new India.Without even knowing the name of the man I followed more than a week, pages and pages on, I felt I've never met someone who treated life and nature with so much care and affinity. I wish I could translate my feelings, my wished and dreams in such a clear and crystal voice.The Alchemy of Desire is not only about love. It's about every kind of desire we humans suffer from.The desire to be succesful, either in career of dreams.The desire to not worry about money, to be your own boss.The desire of having something to desire.And all these kinds need to be balanced perfectly to be able to sustain themselves. Vultures not allowed to devour each other but to remain forever hungry for more.It's about praising the gods of reason. It's about praising the gods of irrationality.It's about keeping the balance between them.My friend described this book as a perfect circle and with that I'd like to conclude my review.As everything ending is a beginning, so every beginning starts with an end.

okyrhoe2018-11-23 19:18

This is a highly satisfying read. From the vivid details of the history, landscape and the peoples of India to the angst of literary craftmanship experienced by the narrator, the story is, or rather the multiplicity of stories are, captivating. "I narrated and narrated -living, embellishing, conjuring- and they became the tales of Scheherazade, stories to keep me alive in her life...I knew that more than anyone else it is lovers who need the gift of the story. They need to tell stories to each other continually to keep themselves from disappearing."I am intrigued by the fact that this is a 'first' novel for Tejpal, for it is a complex narrative. Or shall I conjecture that he had in fact attempted other (unsatisfactory) novels which were destroyed, in the same way that the protagonist offered his inferior manuscripts to the elements (fire, water, etc.) so that the 'first' one would be the 'right' one?When I skimmed through the novel a second time, I found myself focusing on the running commentary regarding the art of writing. "Write in the third person-with authorial omniscience." "Don't struggle to be plausible - India is implausible." "Writing is not life. Fizz is." And this: "I dived into other people's stories and got lost in them; I slowly forgot my own." This is one of the major themes in the book. Tejpal, if one can identify him with the protagonist/narrator on this point, is obviously well-read; there are countless allusions to J. Joyce, R. Kipling, W. Woolf, H. James, T.S. Eliot, C. Bronte, etc. There is, understandably, an underlying unease with this first novel appearing derivative of these influences. And it explains why the 'writer' focuses on desire. As the 'matter' of life, desire is real and immediate, unscripted, rather than artifice or derivation. If there is one thing I wish the book had more of, that would be the heart and mind of Fizz. She's the unifying thread in the narrative, she's the focus of the narrator's life, but ultimately she remains silent and unknown to us, the readers...

Kalika2018-11-29 21:12

I am being a bit generous and giving 4 stars (3.5 would be closer)because parts of this book made me laugh out the loudest I have in years (on reading), and some of the descriptions of people, places and journeys felt so authentic that I was immediately transported to my childhood and teens. Yes, there is an awful lot of "erotic" content. What can you expect from a book that starts with "Love is not the glue between two people. Sex is.."? And it does get repetitive despite the author's desire (pun not intended) to paint it in all shades, shapes, and species. And yes, at times you do feel like telling the (not-so-very-) young couple, c'mon, you've been married for over a decade now, surely there must be something else more important in your relationship. But you can still bear with all the descriptions of "desire", fulfilled and unfulfilled. What I think is the biggest drawback of the book is that it is actually two books, one, a story of a young couple from small town India, madly and obsessively in love, come to the big city, and a sort of coming of age of a marriage (and it's dissolution). And then there is the historical semi-thriller in the form of the story of the white woman whose diaries are found buried in a corner of an old house in the hills. I really liked the first part and was oh-kay about the second. The transition between the two (back and forth) is weak. What really made it a book I enjoyed were the descriptive bits especially of ordinary places and people I knew well, from the two cities they were set in.

liz2018-12-19 01:35

How does a person fall out of love? What contributes to it? This excellent novel explores just that, telling the story of a should-be novelist and the passionate love-of-his-life. Their desire for each other is overwhelming, all-consuming. It's what keeps them together, the foundation of their love, until, all of a sudden one morning, he wakes up and doesn't want her. Why? That's the story he tells, and it is very interesting. However: this is two books. If you want to crack it open, and I encourage you to, please think of it as two books. You'll be much better prepared for it (I got fatigued toward the end).There is no greater code for courtship than walking. Learning to keep in step; the opportunity to express little concerns -- alarm, caution, the touch on the elbow; the blood running in the veins; the sense of movement and shared goal; the sense of just being two amid the swirl; and above all the ability to talk expansively in the open air without the anxiety of each other's gaze and close scrutiny.Those who wish to find love should learn to walk.

Amar2018-11-23 21:12

Is it his real-life sexual misdemeanors that have caused some people to lazily label this book as "soft porn"?! The butt-jokes flow easily don't they? I mean, I'm not his publicist nor am I even going to engage in any sort of puritanical discourse on his whole sordid business but really, just "soft porn"? To call this book just that is to do it a terrible disservice! Such is the scale and ambition of this book, I'd never be able to do justice and come out with a deserving review but it has so much going for it; vivid characterizations, a lovely haunting backdrop, a non-linear narrative, insight on our carnal activities and boy, can this man spin an elegant line or two about stuff that goes on in the bedroom! It'd be a terrible shame for people to write this book off cause of some pre-conceived notions about the bloke. Anyway you can beat me up with your hyperbole detector but here goes- "Finest piece of Indian literature by an Indian novelist, ever"! Mean it! Thoroughly!

Jyoti Narang2018-11-30 18:18

THE ALCHEMY OF DESIRE is not linear in structure and has several different interleaved strands: the role of sexual attraction in love, the struggles of the emerging writer, the problems of India emerging from traditionalism to modernity. A simple recounting of the plot does the novel a serious injustice. The couple endures genteel but joyful poverty until an unexpected inheritance allows them to purchase a country home in the Himalayas. This house was built by an American adventuress, Catherine, whose journals -- found during renovations -- detail a series of intense relationships (sexual and otherwise) with (and between) various Indian men, including a prince. The narrator cannot pull himself away from the journals and the woman whose spirit seems to haunt him, and is as a result pulled away from his wife for the first time.

Amtul2018-11-29 02:41

The biggest mistake of my life was to decide reading this book. I looked at the first and last page before selecting it to read, because the first line started with something like how two people are joined together with the strongest force of "sex" and the book ended with the same phrase but the word sex being replaced with 'love'. I was interested in reading how the book lead to that conclusion. This book was a huge disappointment. It was really a book containing soft porn with a little touch on homosexuality too but overall this book is a cocktail of sexual acts with various partners from the past (the lead character finds some diaries on details of sexual acts) and present (of himself and partner). There was no substance or meaning to the book. It didn't even make sense to me how the realisation or the conclusion was reached after all. Just rubbish!

Annu Bararia2018-12-08 01:32

This is my all time favorite! I have not seen someone being so articulate in expressions of seduction or dilemma as Tarun Tejpal. Being a hardcore Journalist, Tejpal has showcased his craftsmanship at beautiful and refined writing. Each word in this book is fitted in like a precious gem. The book though has a lot of seduction, does not fall short on a noteworthy plot which is in itself is spell-binding. The way the protagonist retraces the past is thrilling. Also how he and Fiz (his wife) make ends meet during the time of hardships is a fun read. The book is full of appeal to people who like to visualize the details they read. It is hell of a possession.

Stephanie2018-12-04 21:42

"You do not have to desire for a hundred years or love for a hundred for it to be true. The love of a fleeing moment, the desire of an instant, is as legitimate and true as that of three score and ten years. [...:] The moment you are touched by love or desire you are touched by the divine." "There is a road for everyone; and a resting place. She must sense her happiness where it came to her; she must take her pleasures where she found them; she must go where her heart took her." "Your house should not be bigger than your heart, your bed not bigger than your sleep."

Carmen2018-12-05 22:24

I am quite ambiguous about this book. The storyline is not linear which makes it interesting in my point of view. I enjoyed the rhythm and it seems to me that it takes the whole book for our want-to-be writer to truly appreciate his wife Fizz. While the book has a high sexual content, I never thought that if could be considered as soft porn. Interested in reading his other book "The story of my Assassins."

Maura Finkelstein2018-11-18 21:21

Ok, why is it that I love misogynist literature? I don't get it....There was something about the unreliable character of the narrator that really got to me here: I didn't like him, but I loved her. ANd in loving her I figured that there had to be something about HIM that I missed. And that made me take a leap of faith, even though I fundamentally disliked and distrusted him........and I really want to move to a crumbling cabin in Himachal and write a novel, so there's that...

SeharMoughal2018-12-09 00:17

It took me a while to finish off this book since most pages were - well, brimming with desire. Tejpal drives home the message that desire and love are not the same - desire holds the relationship together, love doesn't. I think I agree. As always, I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of Indian cities, villages and country side. The book has a great story line; if one is patient enough to get through the first few chapters of soft porn.

Rahul Khanna2018-12-08 01:30

Basically it is concoction of three-four stories with lot of lust and sex. The novel is not polished and you can easily find the seams where he connected these stories. There are some parts which are very good but most of the prose is boring. Overall it is worth reading if you can tolerate its boring portion.

Ilan2018-12-05 21:12

Embarrassingly racy, but a beautiful, extremely well-told story. I started reading it months ago and stopped and started, but the last half of the book was incredible. I could actually see myself reading it again some day.

Akshat2018-11-22 19:12

who can ever hold the essence of fire?who can ever know the alchemy of desire?A beautiful story which unfolds itself at the heart of Indian turmoil, weaving through the paths of love and desire. A must read for all...

Margaret2018-11-18 23:40

I am still trying to figure out how I feel about this book...

Tevilla2018-12-18 23:21

'Petty success is a disaster''Lovers...They need to tell stories to each other continually to keep themselves from disappearing."

About the author

Tarun J. Tejpal Molly van Gelder - Tarun J Tejpal is a journalist, publisher, and novelist. In a 26-year career, he has been an editor with the India Today and the Indian Express groups, and the managing editor of Outlook, India’s premier newsmagazine. In March 2000, he started Tehelka, a news organisation that has earned a global reputation for its aggressive public interest journalism.In 2001, Asiaweek listed Tejpal as one of Asia’s 50 most powerful communicators, and BusinessWeek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia. In 2007 The Guardian named him among the 20 who constitute India's new elite. In 2009 BusinessWeek has named Tarun one of India’s 50 most powerful people.Tarun's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, published in 2005, was hailed by Sunday Times as “an impressive and memorable debut”. Le Figaro called it a “masterpiece”; and Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul declared, “At last – a new and brilliantly original novel from India.” Translated into more than a dozen languages, in France the book won the Prix Millepages and was the finalist for the prestigious Prix Femina.Tarun's second novel, The Story of My Assassins has been published in 2009 to rave reviews. Pankaj Mishra has said, "It sets new and dauntingly high standards for Indian writing in English", while Altaf Tyrewala has called it "an instant classic". He has just recently stepped down from his position as editor of the Tehelka magazine in light of charges of repeated sexual harassment brought against him by a female journalist.

Free eBooks Ebook8.pdfmedia.co Library is in no way intended to support illegal activity. We uses Search API to find the overview of books over the internet, but we don't host any files. All document files are the property of their respective owners, please respect the publisher and the author for their copyrighted creations. If you find documents that should not be here please report them. Read our DMCA Policies and Disclaimer for more details.